SAO PAULO  Edward Beitashour came to the United States from Iran, his birth nation, to study and play soccer at San Francisco State. His wife, Pari, followed him and they began a life in San Jose.

Edward got a job as an electrical engineer for Apple and he passed his passion for the sport to his children, putting a small soccer field in the backyard with mini goals constructed from white plastic pipes and nets strung on them.

Steven, their youngest son, took it the best and played on his older brother’s 11-year-old team when he was 8. A year later, in the spring of 1996, he was a ball boy at San Jose State’s Spartan Stadium for Major League Soccer’s inaugural game. He had his jersey number retired in high school.

And none of that is why he is a right back for Iran at the 2014 World Cup that opens Thursday in Brazil. This is:

Beitashour was good at soccer, and no one noticed. Or not enough people did.

His is not the clichéd story of meteoric ascendancy, of being a five-star prep recruit, of choosing among scholarship offers from Top 25 programs, of going pro early and signing with a top European club, of arriving at the World Cup just as everyone predicted, just as everyone expected.

His story: He had few offers out of Leland High in San Jose and paid his way to San Diego State as a walk-on. He wasn’t considered the top player on a team that never went to the NCAA Tournament. He wasn’t invited to the MLS Scouting Combine. He was invited to the U.S. national team camp – twice – but never got in a game, once because he got hurt and once just because.

Sometimes no one sees the shooting star.

Which did two things. It provided raw motivational fuel, the rejection letters from college coaches, the scouting combine snub, the indifference by U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann, the reluctance of his hometown MLS club to sign him to a new contract, the – Beitashour’s words – “little chip on my shoulder.”

It also, to hear Omid Namazi tell it, made him perfect for Iran.

Namazi, the former San Diego Spirit coach in the Women’s United Soccer Association, was the lead assistant for Iran national coach Carlos Querioz for three years and the man responsible for recruiting Beitashour. Namazi has a unique window into the delicate cultural nuances of an Iranian-American playing for Team Melli, having been born in Utah to Iranian parents and living in Tehran from ages 6 to 18. He understands.

We’ll let him explain it then, how anonymity became advantage, how a guy who hadn’t visited Iran since he was 5 might start at right back in Group F and find himself in Belo Horizonte on June 21 lined up against Lionel Messi:

“Steven is just that type of player who is under the radar. He’s not a flashy player. He’s consistent. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He’s exactly what a lot of Iranian players aren’t, and that’s a steady player. He’s exactly what they need.